


flying with crescent scars

by AmmoKnotKnot7



Series: Stanning Sokka Week 2020 [4]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Gen, Hiding, Hurt Some Comfort, Negative Self Talk, One Shot, POV Second Person, POV Sokka (Avatar), Panic Attacks, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-War, Sokka (Avatar)-centric, Sokka Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:22:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27380380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmmoKnotKnot7/pseuds/AmmoKnotKnot7
Summary: Day 4 – travelling |angstCrescent scars along the inside of your fingers. The only remnants on Toph’s very life in the balance.She trusted you. She was wrong.
Series: Stanning Sokka Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994821
Comments: 6
Kudos: 71
Collections: Sokka Week 2020





	flying with crescent scars

**Author's Note:**

> second person pov in this context is essentially just Sokka talking to himself in his head
> 
> tw: negative self talk, panic attacks, ptsd

_You’re a peace ambassador, Sokka, get yourself together_. 

This is the future, and this is how the most important people are supposed to travel. 

Correction, get to travel. 

It's a luxury. Extravagance, fancy, opulent. Beautiful, technological marvel, faster than any other mode of transport. 

You get this because you’re important now. Don't fuck it up, don’t give them any sign, don’t show how very unqualified you are. For spirits’ sake all you did was stumble upon a frozen Avatar. But now you’re in it, don’t spill all your cards and show them exactly how much of a bumbling fool you are, it will only harm Aang’s reputation. You have to play the part. 

You have to get on that airship. 

It doesn’t matter if your knees buckle. It doesn’t matter that your leg feels like it's freshly broken. It doesn’t matter that the moment you step in, the sky is on fire. It. Doesn’t. Matter. 

Get on the airship. You must, even if it feels like dying. 

Crescent scars along the inside of your fingers. The only remnants on Toph’s very life in the balance. 

She trusted you. She was wrong. 

You failed her on an airship just like this one. 

The windows are screens displaying all the nightmares that keep you up. Stifling heat. Toph falling. Katara, Mom with Katara’s face, Aang. Zuko. Everyone falling. Losing Suki. Fire, burning your very spirit with the comet’s power. 

They plague you every night. Even though you have faced nothing compared to Zuko. To Aang. Even Katara had to see Mom, face the killer. 

And she still remembers. 

You think someone asks you to breathe. All it means is that you failed to properly hide how you’re falling apart. 

Everyone is worried. No one else has the reaction to those airships that you do. Toph was right there with you the whole time, and she can’t sense anything up there. She's still braver than you. They’re all better than you, how could you possibly match up, let alone dream of protecting. 

Katara and Zuko and Aang ensure they never send you an airship again. It takes you twice as long to get anywhere. You're supposed to be responsible of them, but you’re not only useless, you’re a burden. 

You refuse to be a burden any longer. 

Aang is the Avatar, but he’s also thirteen. Katara feels so alone, the last waterbender. So does Aang. Zuko is fighting the entire world still, it feels like at times. His nation’s pride, other nations’ fear. Toph’s parents are still smothering and Suki is a child in charge of other children who only know how to fight. 

They are your people, and you will take care of them. 

Toph loves pushing the limits of her abilities. Between her skills and the Mechanist’s labs and your brains, it’s only matter of time. 

You can do this. You must. 

It's just like Appa. Remember, hold onto those memories. Close your eyes. Ten steps, left turn, fifteen steps. You know you’re in the cockpit. You designed it yourself. Made it with your own two hands (and Toph’s metalbending). You know every inch of this ship. It's yours, like Appa is Aang’s. Aang loves Appa, and you will love SkyWolf. It is your creation, and it can fly. 

Open your eyes. 

Red fire flashes like static interrupting the bright blue sky. But you know which one is real. Because this ship is blue and obnoxious and smaller and yours. You can breathe. 

* * *

Sokka comes to be known as the wacky inventor who flies in a personal airship that he designed and constructed himself. 

But it’s leagues better than being known as the peace ambassador that can’t fly. 

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't make it h/c since i typically write quite a bit of sokka being comforted by friends and family
> 
> so this was sokka taking charge himself
> 
> [my Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/omni-flex). come say hi!  
> [the official Tumblr for SokkaWeek2020](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/sokkaweek). check it out for rules, schedule and prompts.  
> [the ao3 collection.](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/SokkaWeek2020)


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